With a long pause since the last ‘Sideline’, this entry becomes something of a weekly round-up (still, at
least I’ve spared you the week-long speculation and hype on the subject of Colts versus Patriots).

To begin with, the second installment of closing thoughts from the London game:

Now that I’ve had a chance to watch the game again from the rain-free comfort of my own couch, I can see a
little better the way the turf was pulling away under the cleats of players, apparently detaching itself from
the underlying layer.

If the coaching staff make such a report back to Commissioner Goodell, that would presumably be a mark against
Wembley stadium for the future. At the very least, the resultant lack of traction would explain the sogginess
of the offenses on the night.

Another observation regarding this first of the ‘International Series’ is that, aside from scheduling games in
North America, such as in Mexico City or Toronto, Miami and New York relocating to London is about as EASY a
shift of venue as the NFL can expect. If the teams use the time zone or the travel time as an excuse for a poor
demonstration of the NFL product, how much worse will it be when a team from the Pacific or Mountain time zones
has to go to Tokyo, or Sydney?

And there's also the issue of language. London speaks English, generally. Frankfurt less so. Beijing hardly at
all. New York to London represents a challenge of accent and local peculiarities only, while negotiating Roman
traffic or Parisian shrugs would be a far greater test for whistle–stop football players.

Lastly, there’s the suggestion that teams might take it in turns to be involved in the International Series,
sharing the logistic inconvenience around. But the way I hear it, a good number of NFL teams – about a third –
are contracted for 8 games at their home stadia. So some teams would sure get to sidestep participation.

Of course, the NFL could extend the season to 17 games, with 8 home, 8 on the road, and 1 more around the globe,
but there’d probably be the players union to talk to about that, or perhaps a shortening of the pre-season. The
International Series may yet raise more widespread issues than whether teams get caught up in the London traffic.

A Tale of Two Chads
Personnel gossip of the past week has focused quite heavily on two Chads – Pennington and Johnson – and their futures
with the Jets and Bengals respectively. Maybe these are both cases of media frenzy, or of personnel departments with
itchy trigger fingers, but I find both stories faintly perplexing, because neither team really needs to be jettisoning
these players.

In the case of Chad Pennington, this has felt like an inevitability. The media vultures have been circling the Jets QB
for a while, and now they finally get what they wanted: Kellen Winslow. In fact, they got him last week, when he stepped
in for Pennington in the closing minutes of the Bills game ...and promptly threw two picks. Hmm, yeah, that's much better.

Pennington remains the fourth most accurate QB in the league this year, while the Jets have the 24th-ranked rush attack,
and the 29th–ranked defense. The QB change solves nothing.

To some extent, however, Pennington's history of brittleness meant the clock was always ticking on his tenure with the
Jets. There's a faint logic there, even if the timing seems more desperate than sensible. In the case of rumors suggesting
the Bengals will part with wide receiver Chad Johnson in the offseason, there would seem to be a case of mistaken identity
underway. ‘Ocho Cinco’ is not T.O.

Chad Johnson might sometimes like to caricature himself, be confident/arrogant (depending on your point of view), and in
all other ways be thoroughly entertaining, but he’s never yet blown up a locker room, never before demanded a trade to a
team of his choosing, never undermined his quarterback.

He is, however, second in the league in receiving yards, and is the most dangerous weapon on the league’s no.5 offense.
And despite the numerous Cincinnati players to have off-field problems, Johnson upsets league conservatives, but has yet
to trouble the forces of law and order. He's the sort of player the Bengals need desperately.

The Bengals are ranked 31st - next to last - in defense, by the way.

A Game of Intimidation
Sorry, but I’m going to have to mention the Patriots after all. Specifically, the charge that they are ‘running up the score’.
You know what? They are.

I’m just a little perplexed what the crime is - hurting opponents’ feelings? Oh, please!

The NFL likes to think the teams have parity, and the Patriots are proving how dominant they are despite it. If that upsets
their opponents, who cares. These are professionals, not college amateurs. These guys are paid huge sums of money to be
intimidating, to be merciless, to take their superior size or speed and physically overwhelm their opposition. Football is a
haven for bullies, and there’s nothing fair about that.

Some of those bullies wear pads. But some of them carry clip boards and wear headphones.